1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and devices for editing text displayed on a screen and, more particularly, to methods for editing text displayed on a screen.
2. Description of Related Art
The copending patent applications captioned above describe a graphical user interface for a machine having a screen display. A significant feature of the interface is that it provides the means for hand drawn entry of on-screen objects which may be associated with functions, files, connections, and other objects or actions accessible by the system to carry out the user's desired purpose, whatever it may be. A salient aspect of this interface is the ability to carry out commands and actions corresponding to the hand drawn inputs as they are applied to any on-screen object, including (but not limited to) text presented as text files, ASCII files, word processing files and their equivalent in standard word processing applications.
The hand draw approach utilizes hand drawn objects and various user-definable connects between those objects and various contexts of those objects (among other characteristics) to implement and control text editing functions. Furthermore, these hand drawing techniques increase the speed and familiarity and flexibility of a wide range of typical text editing processes, by replacing them with non-menu driven operations. Also, many of these prior art text editing operations can be utilized only according to set orders or set procedures. These orders and procedures, in many cases, can be eliminated by the present invention, which can be used to edit either typed text, hand printed or written text or voice recognition text or the equivalent of these.
Editing Voice Recognized Text: Using current technology, a computer user may employ a microphone connected to the input of a computer, to simply speak words intended to become text (dictate letters, documents, etc.). Improved voice recognition software and increased processing power have made this technology more commonplace today. As the text is spoken, it is processed by the software in the computer and presented (shown) on a computer screen as familiar text—in whatever font is the default for such a system. Generally, the software provides specific, limited techniques for entering punctuation in the spoken text. However, the most intuitive way to speak text is not to speak the punctuation, the paragraph start and stops and the indents, etc. Such text housekeeping “speak” is not easy and tends to interrupt the train of thought of the speaker. What is preferable is the ability to simply speak naturally (as if talking on the telephone) and then edit the text later.
Regarding editing after voice recognition input of text, it is well known that voice recognition software inevitably misunderstands some words, phrases, and sentence structures. Although it is possible to direct the software to these errors and enter corrections by further voice inputs, this is a laborious task that slows the overall text input process and greatly impedes widespread acceptance of voice recognition software. Many voice recognition software users (and many non-users of computers) cannot operate a typewriter keyboard effectively, either because of disabilities or lack of manual keyboard skills. Clearly there is a need in the prior art for effective text editing that, like voice recognition inputs, does not rely on an alphanumeric keyboard and mouse, as do common word processing applications.
The hand drawing approach to text editing is such a system. It provides an arrangement to very quickly and intuitively edit text that may (after initially speaking or otherwise entering the text) be stored into a computer as one or more large paragraphs, i.e., many pages long. Hand draw editing enables users of spoken text to edit this text into a finished document very easily. This same technique can also be used for text typed on an alphanumeric keyboard, which may be many pages long and may need reordering, cutting and pasting, formatting, and/or other types of correction.
Editing Typed Text: Currently, if one engages the heading software for some of the word processing applications, the software enters an “A”, for example, as the heading for a paragraph. When the user hits the return or enter key to drop the cursor down to a new paragraph, the software automatically enters a new heading letter. However, if one desires to type a second paragraph under the “A” heading, and hits the return key to start the second paragraph, the software automatically places the next outline heading “B”. It is then necessary to delete this heading, move the tabs on a ruler to adjust the new text to line up under the existing “A” heading and type the second paragraph. Placing headings selectively in text should be more flexible and accommodating to the user's needs for multiple paragraphs under a single heading. Also, current systems of outlining are rigid, not permitting users to define outline possibilities that do not exist in a program or that may not be considered logical types of outlines. Users should be able to create their own outline structures in any manner of their choosing, not according to set protocols or procedures. Finally, the use of color and font types, styles and sizes are generally limited and at best difficult to use. This should be much simpler to do and lend itself more easily to user customization.
Hand printed or script recognition of text: The invention has the same benefit when applied to text resulting from handwriting recognition software as from voice recognition and the typing of text.